The PACIS Project in Faith Based Diplomacy

The late Tim Pownall, assistant director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution
and director of the Straus/Seaver Conflict Management Program, receives the Peacemaker
Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution.

"Words count and trust matters"

The PACIS Project in Faith Based Diplomacy, in consultation with governments and religious
leaders, addresses intractable identity-based conflicts that exceed the grasp of traditional
diplomacy by effectively combining the transcendent power of religion with the practice
of international diplomacy through an innovative model of faith-based reconciliation
that has borne tangible fruit in the United States, Sudan, Kashmir and recently in
the Arab and Israeli spheres of influence.

The PACIS Project emphasizes "on the ground" intervention among polarized communities
in situations of identity-based conflict. It seeks to work with leaders and emerging
leaders in policymaking circles, foreign ministries, national security agencies, religious
denominational communities and humanitarian non-governmental organizations who grapple
with the complex role of religion in societies, and violent conflict. ThePACIS Project
focuses on the development of the specialized field of track two diplomacy that is
able to work in a collaborative fashion with official track one government-to-government
diplomacy.

Pepperdine's School of Law provides a superior legal education that aligns personal values with areas of interest, such as dispute resolution, religion, public interest, criminal, and entertainment law.